As people age, they develop fears, often unfounded, and as people become increasingly housebound as they age, those concerns often accelerate.
What is society’s duty to seniors to reduce those fears, real and perceived?
New research by academics from Monash University in Melbourne and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg im Breisgau, southwest Germany, finds that even in “advantaged” areas of major cities, older people still have a high fear of crime, despite minimal exposure to actual crime.
“Our finding points to the fact that it might be a lack of exposure to, or lack of interaction with, a neighbourhood,” says co-author Associate Professor Rebecca Wickes, a Monash University criminologist.
Professor Dietrich Oberwittler, of Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, put it more succinctly.
“Generally speaking, the dynamics of human development suggest that positive change is possible also in older age. But it seems much more promising to start caring about these issues earlier in life in order to be prepared for older age.”
We must take care of one another and explain that the nightly 6pm news does not always reflect the world outside.
